The Faustian Times

        Earlier this week Lauren Southern of the Rebel Media released a video covering the doxxing of popular alt-right youtuber Millennial Woes. The Daily Mirror, a leftist British tabloid, identified Millennial Woes by his true name, released photos of his address, and interviewed his neighbors. The event caused Millennial Woes to leave the country in haste, presumably to be supported by some of his fan base abroad. In her video Southern decries the dishonesty of the left, pleading with them to "make an argument" rather than violate someone's free speech rights and make no discernible rebuttal of the positions held by those they are attacking.

       Unfortunately, Southern apparently fails to understand the current lack of incentives for leftists to want to behave honestly in the first place. 

       The degree to which any sort of intellectual discourse is possible is directly proportional to the level of material surplus being generated in that society. To comprehend this in a broader context it is important to form a basic understanding of evolutionary psychology. 

r/K selection

        There are two primary competing evolutionary strategies where it concerns how society should be structured, r and K selection.

        r-selection, the evolutionary strategy of the left, is concerned with consuming the material wealth of a society. r-selection derives from the traditional feminine need to consume the majority of resources produced by males to facilitate child-rearing. This also explains why the political organization of cities "progressively" trends towards being more and more dominated by women as they migrate to metropolitan centers seeking those resources. When policies in a society begin to favor r-selected strategies, you see not just women, but men, and particularly minorities pursuing this strategy as well. 

        In opposition to this trend of over-consumption is k-selection, which favors postponement of gratification and acquiring material wealth for the long-term. 

        The full scope of r/k selection cannot be covered here, but for more information please see Stefan Molyneux's video on the topic.

Material Surplus and Incentives

       The nature of the competition between these two factions dictates that where intellectually honest discourse is possible between these two factions, a unique set of circumstances must first be present. Indeed, the normal course of events since the inception of Western Democratic rule has been for leftists to behave as dishonorably as conditions allow and for conservatives to try to contain their parasitism so as not to interfere with societal stability and economic progress.

        The birthplace of the left and right as a political concept, 19th century Republican France, was itself a product of the extreme violence and bloodshed of the French revolution. 

                        Leftists taking a "reasonable discussion" to its logical conclusion

The Left at the Adult's Table

         Only within narrow windows of time in the West (measured in decades) have the right and left been capable of the type of debate Lauren Southern longs for. They are evidenced in societies experiencing rapid generation of wealth leading to surpluses. The left, not having yet acquired these surpluses, are therefore more incentivized to behave cordially to their conservative counterparts who are primarily responsible for having generated this wealth. 

         Historical examples of this phenomenon include the British Empire during the Victorian Era, The US in the immediate post-WW2 era, and parts of Europe in the latter half of the 20th century. 

The Problem with Democracy

          The nature of democracy is that it trends towards benefiting concentrated interests at the expense of the populace a large. A small group of motivated political activists attempting to influence policy that will benefit them financially in the long run will have a much larger incentive to get that policy put into law than the rest of the populace. 

         The cost, when divided amongst the populace, is simply too small for any one individual to invest a great deal of time contesting it.

         Democracy is therefore extremely amiable to feminine r-selected strategies where a large amount of material abundance is being pursued. However, until it is acquired, leftists do incur costs to their strategy by behaving too dishonestly, affecting not only their ability to earn but the positions that they can get. 

The Current Year

          In the present most of the surplus wealth of the post-WW2 era in the US and Europe has now been consumed. Debt in the US has ballooned up to 20 Trillion dollars and Wall Street requires repeated stimulus via money printing by the Federal Reserve to avoid a significant Stock Market correction.  

          In this environment leftists are in full on "feast or famine" mode and have no reason to cooperate or behave honestly with the political right. The few remaining scraps on the table therefore incentivize the most egregious, dishonest behavior possible. 

          They have also captured most of academia and (despite Trump) still dominate the politics of major metropolitan centers. They therefore have no reason to provide an equal playing field within an arena they now dominate.

          While most conservatives (and some libertarians) promote discourse, seeking to provide an environment for all viewpoints to be discussed and considered, the primary concern of the leftist will always be to consume. Consumption of capital, consumption of culture, and consumption of their opponents' political rights that challenge their speech and their interests.

          While it is certainly possible that economic hardship in the future might force the left to return to the adult's table, the same cycle of history will inevitably repeat until we find a solution to the problem of democracy.